There’s a compelling argument to be made – and many have made it – that comic books serve as the mythology of contemporary American culture. These brightly-colored, spandex-clad archetypes of good and evil have become ubiquitous, a pop culture pantheon that serves as a common reference point spanning generations.

(Bruce) said, 'If you found out anything about me that you didn't put in the book because you thought it might make me uncomfortable go back and put it in.'

You feel that you can almost reach out, touch Bruce Springsteen and hear his nervous laugh within the pages of 'Bruce,' an absorbing new biography by Peter Ames Carlin, published by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Carlin's previous bios of Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson generally succeeded in shining light on subjects for whom new information was thought to be exhausted, and he does it again in 'Bruce.' The book retains its 'unauthorized' status despite Springsteen's unusual decision to participate.

New book recounts the life of David Foster Wallace

- A single strongly marked capacity or aptitude. - Extraordinary intellectual power especially as manifested in creative activity. - A person endowed with transcendent mental superiority.

The late writer David Foster Wallace was an embodiment of all of these definitions. The author of the seminal novel 'Infinite Jest' along with a wealth of beloved work both fiction and non died in September of 2008 by his own hand. He was just 46 years old.